Textile Society of America
Date of this Version
2002
Document Type
Article
Citation
Published in Silk Roads, Other Roads: Textile Society of America 8th Biennial Symposium, Sept. 26–28, 2002, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Abstract
Today, we are going to visit Heidelberg, the city where the earliest German University was founded in 1386. On account of its romantic setting, it became one of the internationally popular institutions in the 19th century. Here, we will visit the University Library, where the manuscript we are to discuss today is housed. It is on the shelf in the Department of Manuscripts, bound in a modest working cover of the 19th century.
History. - We shall embark on a journey of more than 500 years into the past and through some very trying times that helped shape present-day Central Europe. Finding the manuscript was not an earth-shaking discovery, but rather the following of the Haensel-and- Gretel trail of crumbs which were dropped by a book on medieval trades by Gerhard Eis. and the later mention of the manuscript by Leonie von Wilckens, the now deceased Curator of Textiles at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. It is part of the famous Palatina Collection of the University of Heidelberg, that is to say, it once belonged to a prince of the Palatinate.
The manuscript was collected some time before the 1550's by Ottheinrich (1502-1559), then count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg. He was a lavish Protestant Renaissance Prince, a notable collector and bibliophile. This ran him into great financial trouble - especially in view of his pocket-size realm - and his eclectic art collection counting many famous Italian paintings and objets d'art wound up on the auction block, since the trades no longer consented to support his extravagant lifestyle by paying his debt. He had to lie low and leave the country for a while. His magnificent castle from that time at Neuburg can still be admired today. He was able to hold on to his collection of books, though. Many of his book acquisitions were a direct result of the many closings of monasteries and convents due to the wave of the Reformation that swept Germany - in most cases these collections were thus saved from destruction. In 1556, he succeeded to the hereditary title of Elector Palatine, thus joining the rather powerful club of princes that elected the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Ottheinrich immediately proceeded to remodel Heidelberg Castle in the Renaissance style, and he combined his library with that of the University and placed it into the upper story of the Church of the Holy Ghost, to be made available to scholars and other interested folks who were able to read. He also provided a generous endowment, so that the library could continue to be developed and prosper. Here, the collection served the university, which was reborn as a reformation institution with Philip Melanchthon at the helm.
Comments
Copyright 2002 by the author(s). Used by permission of TSA.